1. A2 America Feedback - Sources
Easter Mock Week
A2 America Feedback - Sources

2. Overall findings:
Exam structure has vastly improved. 99% of you are now structing your answer correctly 
But…
Too many people did not have enough knowledge!
Not enough of your were linking value/limits to the topic in the question (consequences of Dred Scott)
There was a huge variation of grades, and this was ultimately down to these two issues

3. (Use: the textbook; actual books; AS PowerPoints are on the blog)
Overall findings:
Going forward. You need to start learning the content… (gasp)
I will continuing to reiterate the exam structure on a weekly basis and ensure we practice linking value/limits to the topic
But you have to meet me half way!
Every Monday lesson from next week I expect you to come with evidence of revision of AS America content. This can be revision notes, or practice papers.
(Use: the textbook; actual books; AS PowerPoints are on the blog)
I will give you a pile of AS America checklists, to give out to students who do not have one – some/most should!

4. Provenance Task: Pick out the author, type, date, audience and purpose
Source A. Adapted from an article in the newspaper, the Charleston Mercury (South Carolina), entitled ‘The Decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case, and its Tremendous Consequences’, March 16th 1857
Task: Pick out the author, type, date, audience and purpose
Q. How many of these made it into your first paragraph?
Author
N/A (not every source will have all 5 elements)
Type
Newspaper, the Charleston Mercury (South Carolina)
Date
March 16th 1857
Audience
South Carolina
Purpose
Interpret the Dred Scott case

5. Provenance: Knowledge
Task: on a white board, bullet point any knowledge you have about the type, date, audience and purpose
2/40 students mentioned the importance of South Carolina.
Too many of you said this source was months/years after
Newspaper, the Charleston Mercury
(South Carolina)
South Carolina was a notoriously extreme southern state e.g. Nullification Crisis 1833, first state to succeed 1860, Fort Sumter 1861
March 16th 1857
10 days after the Dred Scott case
South Carolina
Local audience, but significant as a state in the lead up to the civil war
Interpret the Dred Scott case
South Carolina welcomed the Dred Scott ruling

6. Provenance: Value/limits
How valuable is this source to an historian studying the consequences of the Dred Scott decision
Value:
Type and purpose give you insight into how South Carolina reacted to Dred Scott
10 days after give you an insight to the immediate consequences
Limits
South Carolina is notoriously extreme, therefore it’s reaction is not representative of the North, or indeed other Southern States
10 days after does not give you any long term consequences of the Dred Scott case

7. Provenance
Q. What is wrong with this starting sentence?
“The provenance of this source is a newspaper article from the Charleston Mercury (South Carolina), entitled ‘The Decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case, and its Tremendous Consequences’, and it was published on March 16th 1857 “
IT IS…
All this sentence does it repeat the provenance. It is a huge waste of time given that you only have 20 minutes.

8. Provenance What would be a better way of starting?
This source comes from the Charleston Mercury (South Carolina)…
This source was published on 16th March 1857…
The audience of this source is the people of South Carolina…
The purpose of this source is to…
Any of the above are better, because they isolate one aspect of the provenance, rather than repeating it all. After this sentence you would bring in your own knowledge and then link to value/limits. Do this 2/3 times and then move onto tone.

9. Tone
The Dred Scott decision, in a political party view, is the judgement that Congress has no power and can delegate no power over the question of slavery in the Territories. This decision, at a single blow, smashes the anti-slavery platform of the late great Northern Republican Party into atoms. The policy of legislating slavery out of Kansas and the other Territories of the Union by Congress will no longer avail them. Congress has no power in the Territories. That is settled. What was in doubt is in doubt no longer. The supreme law is expounded by the supreme authority and disobedience is rebellion, treason and revolution. The Republican Party henceforth must choose between submission and revolution – loyalty and treason.
Task: underline/highlight how you described the tone of this source in your answer
Get students to underline/highlight how they described the tone of this source

10. Tone
Celebratory, its title talks of the ‘Tremendous Consequences’. The Dred Scott decision was welcomed in the South, where it was seen as a clear sign that the Constitution was on the side of slavery and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Southerners had grown uncomfortable with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and argued that they had a right, under the federal constitution, to bring slaves into the territories, regardless of any decision by a territorial legislature on the subject
Shows strong partisan dislike of the Republican Party. The Republican party was against the Dred Scott ruling, who saw the expansion of slavery as a ‘great evil’
Value:
Strength of response is valuable in understanding South Carolina’s positive reaction to the Dred Scott case
Strength of response also shows the consequences of Dred Scott on the relationship between the Democrats and Republicans
Italics is own knowledge they could add

11. Argument Task: Bullet point all of the arguments in this source (4)
The Dred Scott decision, in a political party view, is the judgement that Congress has no power and can delegate no power over the question of slavery in the Territories. This decision, at a single blow, smashes the anti-slavery platform of the late great Northern Republican Party into atoms. The policy of legislating slavery out of Kansas and the other Territories of the Union by Congress will no longer avail them. Congress has no power in the Territories. That is settled. What was in doubt is in doubt no longer. The supreme law is expounded by the supreme authority and disobedience is rebellion, treason and revolution. The Republican Party henceforth must choose between submission and revolution – loyalty and treason.

12. Argument
Congress has no power and can delegate no power over the question of slavery in the Territories. The ruling stated that Scott as a slave could not sue for his freedom as he was not a citizen and that his master was entitled to take Scott into any territory in America. It stated ‘the federal government had no power to regulate slavery in the federal territories acquired after the creation of the United States’. The decision was only the second time that the Supreme Court had ruled an Act of Congress to be unconstitutional
Value:
Insight to the consequences of Dred Scott on the Legislative branch of the government, and thus the relationship between the Legislative and Supreme Court

13. Argument
This decision, at a single blow, smashes the anti-slavery platform of the late great Northern Republican Party into atoms. This is incorrect, a consequence of Dred Scott was that it strengthened the Republican Party. Ironically, it was the Democrat party which divided (Northern Democrats such as Stephen Douglas had supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act).
Value:
Insight into how the newspaper perceives the consequences of Dred Scott on the Republican Party
Limits
Does not accurately portray the consequences of Dred Scott on the Republican party (could link to the fact this paper is only 10 days after the case).

14. Argument
Congress has no power in the Territories. This is incorrect. Whilst Congress ‘had no power to regulate slavery’, this the only consequence of Dred Scott on Congress’ power in the territories.
Value
Insight into how South Carolina perceive the consequences of Dred Scott on the Legislative branch more broadly
Limits
Gives an exaggerated view on the consequences of Dred Scott on the Legislative branch of government

15. Argument
The supreme law is expounded by the supreme authority and disobedience is rebellion, treason and revolution. The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest federal court of the United States. The Supreme Court is the final interpreter of federal constitutional law. However, the 14th Amendment overturned Dred Scott after the Civil War, as opposed to another Supreme Court case.
Value
Give insight into the role of the Supreme Court and it’s authority within the American government

16. Task
Spend the next 5 minutes in silence, re-reading you answer and my comments on it
You are then going to pick one paragraph to re-write. It must be the one that you think needs most improvement.